Today we announced to the world that we’ve changed our name from Ascension Insurance to Relation Insurance Services. I’m personally thrilled about this new name–it speaks to who we are and the legendary service we strive to deliver, every day.

Our clients have always faced a wide array of operating challenges and we’ve been by their side as a partner and an advocate to help them manage risk. As we head into 2018, we’re facing an increasingly complex world. Media headlines on topics as diverse as cyber-attacks, blockchain/cryptocurrency, autonomous vehicles, smart cities, drones, and the difficulties in attracting and retaining employees in an ever-transforming business environment, were unheard of just a few short years ago.

Business leaders are wondering how these challenges will impact their organizations and it’s our job to help clients understand the risks. To help them connect the dots between data and analytics, and leverage our insurance expertise and strategic relationships to develop and implement solutions that mitigate those risks. The name Relation emphasizes our ability to do all that, and from here on out, we’re proudly putting it front-and-center, on everything we do.

Looking back, 2017 was a strong year for us. We had excellent year-over-year revenue and EBITDA growth, which was driven by a combination of factors:

• Through Pan American Insurance Services, our wholly owned subsidiary, we made strategic acquisitions in the west and welcomed two outstanding firms, Yosemite Pacific Services and Agro Crop Insurance Agency, to our brand family. Both firms are leaders in what they do and we couldn’t be more excited to have them on board. These acquisitions combined have now positioned us as one of the largest agribusiness insurance writers in California.
• We expanded our personal lines and small commercial lines reach by continuing to integrate our Greenpoint acquisition in the east, (made late in 2016, it broadened our North Carolina footprint and extended our operations into Virginia), and purchasing a commercial book in Hollister, California from The Liberty Company.
• We invested a lot to make sure our production and service teams, which are some of the best in the business, had access to a full suite of sales techniques, tools, technologies and best practices to serve our clients. Our industry-leading retention rate is a result of their tireless efforts.

We also made executive and strategic regional hires with an eye toward managing our continued growth and aligning the business units with the evolving insurance and risk landscape. What follows is by no means an inclusive list, but our team grew even stronger in 2017 with the following, key additions:

• Natalie Zensius joined us as Vice President of Marketing and Communications to identify opportunities to strengthen our brand, increase awareness of our products and services, and attract and retain top talent.
• Scott Machado came on board as Vice President of Information Technology to implement customer-experience initiatives that build scale and drive value through employee and customer satisfaction.
• Kari Doeckel joined as Vice President, Operations to Pan American, to lead account retention, carrier management, and client-service efforts.
• Rob Bauer became our Corporate Legal Counsel to provide solutions in corporate governance, carrier and partner relationship negotiations, and regulatory compliance.
• Michael Williams joined as Loss-Control Consultant in our eastern region to provide comprehensive risk-management and loss-control programs.
• Kristine Fox brought account management and crop insurance expertise to the Pan American team.
• Jennie Hunsberger added additional retirement services expertise to the western region benefits team.

In addition, we recognized some outstanding individuals with new leadership promotions:

• Keri Lopez from President of western division employee benefits to President, employee benefits to manage our national Employee Benefits practice.
• Kate Rager from Corporate Legal Counsel to General Counsel.
• Greg Merrill from Senior Vice President to Executive Vice President of Pan American.
• Michael Lorente to Sales Leader, Western Region.

Wherever they sit on the org chart, our people and the culture they create, are our greatest strength and are what contribute to making this a great place to work.

We were also honored to be included alongside our esteemed peers in the industry in 2017:

• We were named as an “Elite Agency” by Insurance Business America for the third year in a row.
• We were named to Insurance Journal’s 2017 Top 100 Property/Casualty Agencies.
• We moved up from #47 to #42 on Business Insurance’s Top 100 Largest U.S. Brokers.

While we appreciate the accolades, at the end of the day it matters most to us what our clients need and we know that they need their broker to stay ahead of the curve and to provide intelligent, tailored solutions backed by deep experience. They need a broker to apply data-driven technology solutions to drive efficiency, innovation, and a competitive edge and to bring strategic carrier partnerships to collaborate with them. As we look forward to 2018, our new name Relation underscores all of the connections we make for our clients. This is always who we’ve been. Now we have a name that better reflects it.